Iowa Associate Medical Director

Associate Medical Director Iowa

Valcore Recover, LLC

Part time • Primarily remote with Iowa site visits as needed

Reports to William E. Cooke, MD, Medical Director

Fierce Compassion. Purposeful Change.

Help build the kind of care you want your patients to receive.

Valcore is an innovative, physician-owned organization committed to patient-centered, evidence-based care for people living with addiction and co-occurring health conditions. Our mission is to make that care more accessible, more connected, and more responsive to the people who need it. We believe innovation should solve real problems: removing unnecessary barriers to treatment, helping clinicians work together, and translating evidence into dependable daily care.

Fierce compassion means respecting each patient’s dignity, listening to their goals, and advocating for the care they need. Purposeful change means turning those commitments into practical improvements—and following through to see whether they are making a difference.

Our work centers on three priorities:

Culture. Build teams where people can ask questions, raise concerns, and work through problems with respect and accountability. Support clinicians so they can do their best work.

Engagement. Give patients a meaningful voice in their treatment. Strengthen the relationships among patients, providers, and staff that help people remain connected to care.

Standard of care. Make evidence-based treatment, sound clinical judgment, and reliable follow-through consistent expectations across every site.

As our Iowa Associate Medical Director, you will help turn these commitments into everyday practice at our partner addiction treatment programs. Your clinical judgment, teaching, and relationships with providers and facility teams will help shape how care is delivered. This role is well suited to a physician who enjoys supporting colleagues, solving problems, and helping patients stay engaged in treatment.

We are looking for a physician who is approachable, communicates directly and respectfully, and follows through when concerns are identified—someone who wants to lead with compassion and help build lasting change.

What you will do

• Support providers. Build relationships with onsite physicians and advanced practice providers, hold brief weekly individual check-ins, and provide practical clinical consultation and coaching. • Guide safe clinical care. Help teams work through admission decisions, withdrawal management, co-occurring medical and psychiatric concerns, medication safety, changes in level of care, and care transitions. • Strengthen integrated care. Work with executive directors, nursing leaders, therapists, and providers to improve communication, clarify responsibilities, and ensure that clinical concerns receive timely follow-up. • Review documentation and close the loop. Review assigned admission histories and physicals each week, with sign-off through authorized workflows. Follow up on missing, overdue, or incomplete assessments and unresolved orders, results, or referrals. • Lead quality improvement. Participate in monthly structured chart audits and review trends in early treatment departures, transfers to higher levels of care, length of stay, and readmissions. Work with site leaders on specific corrective actions and verify follow-through. • Develop the team and clinical systems. Support provider onboarding, education, performance feedback, and recruitment. Help implement approved policies, treatment protocols, and documentation standards, and recommend improvements. • Keep leadership informed. Provide a concise weekly update to Dr. Cooke, participate in monthly facility quality meetings, and promptly escalate significant safety concerns.

Qualifications

• MD or DO with an active, unrestricted Iowa medical license, or the ability to obtain one before beginning services. • Board certification in Addiction Medicine. • Experience in addiction treatment, including withdrawal management, medications for substance use disorders, and care of patients with co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions. • Familiarity with ASAM levels of care, particularly residential treatment and medically monitored withdrawal management. • A commitment to compassionate, trauma-informed care, shared decision-making, and reducing unnecessary barriers to treatment. • Strong clinical judgment and the ability to coach providers, address concerns constructively, and work effectively with multidisciplinary teams. • Ability to meet facility credentialing and professional liability coverage requirements, with DEA and Iowa controlled-substance registrations appropriate to assigned prescribing duties.

Prior medical leadership, quality-improvement, and telehealth experience are preferred.

Schedule and role structure

• Part-time work performed primarily remotely, with scheduled virtual meetings and Iowa site visits as reasonably needed. • Weekly hours and compensation will be established based on the number of assigned facilities and the agreed scope of responsibilities, with review as the role grows. • No routine overnight admission or facility-call obligation. Planned backup coverage or additional direct patient care will be arranged and compensated separately by mutual agreement.

The Associate Medical Director carries out delegated clinical leadership responsibilities under Dr. Cooke’s direction. Dr. Cooke retains overall medical-governance authority. Any direct patient care requires appropriate assignment, licensure, credentialing, and coverage, and the physician retains independent clinical judgment for that care.